Dong Van Stone Plateau in the northern mountains of Ha Giang province, mostly made of limestone and home to the fossils of thousands of ancient animals, has been inducted as a member of the Global Network of National Geoparks.
All the way up to Dong Van plateau
The Vietnamese delegation attending the European Geoparks Conference in Lesvos, Greece, announced the news last Saturday.
The plateau, in Ha Giang Province, is the country’s first geological park and second in Southeast Asia after Langkawi Geological Park in Malaysia.
Dong Van was among six sites approved at the conference.
The plateau, which has remained untouched for hundreds of millions of years, has mammoth rocks that spread over four districts – Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Meo Vac, and Dong Van – and is around 1,000m high.
It is made up of at least 80 percent limestone and has the remains of thousands of species of ancient creatures that lived here 400-600 million years ago.
The 574-square-kilometer plateau is also home to several cultures that sprung up over the centuries and now has 250,000 people belonging to 17 ethnic groups living there.
The GGN is a UNESCO program established in 1998 and managed by the UN body’s Ecological and Earth Sciences Division.
It seeks to promote and conserve the planet’s geological heritage and encourage sustainable research and development by the concerned communities.
National geological sites gain worldwide recognition and profit through the exchange of knowledge, expertise, experience and staff with other Geoparks.
Source: Tuoitrenews
